Beginning of Two Dynasties

Today was the opening of a new History of Life exhibit of Kuopio Museum, located in Eastern Finland. I was one of the six Finnish paleoartists working on the exhibition, and when I walked in, this is what greeted me, wall-sized. It was a bit baffling.

This is set in what is now Canada, about 306 million years ago. It features what was then a brand-new way of reproduction - laying leathery eggs on dry land - and early members of two great dynasties of land tetrapods. On the left is Archaeothyris, one of the earliest undisputable synapsids. On the right, defending a newly laid clutch of eggs, is an early diapsid similar to Petrolacosaurus (though not specifically that taxon, since it lived about four million years later in what is now Kansas). I tried to give the animals a hint of things to come, some sort of subtle mammalian and reptilian air, respectively, instead of just going with generic lizard-things. Around them, the endless, lush swamp forests of Carboniferous - today simply known as 'coal'.

I made a whole set of picture for the exhibition and will be publishing most of them here in the near future. Plenty of new paleoart coming!